Fort Green

The Verdict

The trick with healthy cafes is finding one that doesn’t feel like you’re deliberately withholding. If your local does a salad bowl that you actually WANT to eat, that you crave even on a ‘binge day’, consider yourself #blessed. Fort Green is that kind of place.

It’s the brainchild of nutritionist Bannie Williams and designer Nicholas Cooke—a swish, minimalist cafe and juice bar (with a yoga studio in the works nextdoor). All blonde timber, block colours and hanging greenery.

The couple released a bestselling book earlier in the year, The Smoothie Manifesto, and Fort Green is kind of the physical manifestation of that whole credo. Can you make superfood smoothies and salad bowls taste delicious? Turns out you bloody well can.

Let’s start with the wholefood bowls. The Beef Bowl is an out-and-out superstar (dry-aged marinated beef, quinoa, seasonal greens and a big wodge of fiery kimchi), but the Vegan Pad Thai was also a surprise (kelp noodles, pickled veggies, coriander chilli and a wicked peanut sauce). Mushroom-addicts, make a bee-line for the Mushroom Bowl: roasted field mushies with greens, avocado, a 63-degree egg and some crusty sourdough.

The breakfast bowls are a classic mix of porridge, bircher, acai and chia pudding, but the execution is what sets Fort Green apart. Everything just tastes so bloody...fresh. Wash it all down with a banana & walnut smoothie (sweetened with Manuka honey and cinnamon)—make sure to add a little Maca and Spirulina from the ‘Enhancers’ range too.

And just when you thought Fort Green couldn't get any healthier, they went and opened a yoga studio upstairs. Yep, you can now get your acai with a side of Downward Dog. The classes here are mostly a mix of Vinyasa, Yin and pilates, and the space itself was inspired by those Pinterest-level NYC loft yoga studios. You know the ones. Best of all? You can sign up for various levels of yoga membership, and they come with cafe perks! Now we're talking...

Image credit: Jenna Fahey-White